Month: July 2018

Finding the right life insurance agent can be a real challenging task. What do you look for in an agent? Like many of us we don’t think of these things until it affects us personally. Someone that you know maybe a friend, family or co-worker has have an event which has now called you to take action. But where should you start? Some methods are tried and true mainly getting recommendations or referrals. This is better than opening up the phone book for a random search. I would take a genuine referral rather than a rating off of a website. With a referral, a person can go into details of telling you how knowledgeable, honest, and sincere the agent was. I happen to be a local (Brandon FL) independent agent serving all of Central Florida. I am making it my mission to do business this way. I would like for you to tell everyone that you know just how knowledgeable, honest, and sincere I am. This is how you find the right life insurance agent. I am on the web at www.iklamyerslifehealthinsurance.com feel free to visit my site. I would like you to know that you have a friend in the business. Feel free to add a comment if someone referred me to you. I would like to know because that means I am doing business the right way.

Just a quick intro to this piece. We as agents must always protect our client. This is the number one priority if you are going to be in this business. That means no commission if the client’s best interest is not first. At IKLA Myers Life Health this is part of the core values that I base my business on. Scammers are using fancier or more official papers but the core element stay the same. They first try to get information from a first party and then pose as them to dupe the second party. Please remember to always check whom you are giving out your personal information to. Remember you have a friend in the business. www.iklamyerslifehealthinsurance.com Please see article below.

IR-2017-171, Oct. 12, 2017
WASHINGTON – The Internal Revenue Service today alerted tax professionals and their clients to a fake insurance tax form scam that is being used to access annuity and life insurance accounts.
Cybercriminals currently are combining several tactics to create a complex scheme through which both tax professionals and taxpayers have been victimized.
There may be variations but here’s how one scam works: The cybercriminal, impersonating a legitimate cloud-based storage provider, entices a tax professional with a phishing email. The tax professional, thinking they are interacting with the legitimate cloud-based storage provider, provides their email credentials including username and password.
With access to the tax professional’s account, the cybercriminal steals client email addresses. The cybercriminal then impersonates the tax professional and sends emails to their clients, attaching a fake IRS insurance form and requesting that the form be completed and returned. The cybercriminal receives replies by fax and/or by an email very similar to the tax professional’s email – using a different email service provider or a slight variation to the tax pro’s address.
The subject line varies but may be “urgent information” or a similar request. The awkwardly worded text of the email states:
Dear Life Insurance Policy Owner,
Kindly fill the form attached for your Life insurance or Annuity contract details and fax back to us for processing in order to avoid multiple (sic) tax bill (sic).
The cybercriminal, using data from the completed form, impersonates the client and contacts the individual’s insurance company. The cybercriminal then attempts to obtain a loan or make a withdrawal from those accounts.
The IRS reminds tax professionals to be aware of phishing emails, free offers and other common tricks by scammers. Those tax professionals who have data breaches should contact the IRS immediately through their Stakeholder Liaison. See Data Theft Information for Tax Professionals.
Individuals who receive the insurance tax form scam email should forward it to phishing@irs.gov and then delete it. Individuals who completed and returned the fake tax form should contact their insurance carrier for assistance